Part 2: What’s wrong with having more than 500 friends on Facebook? And the Etpers’ solution.

As mentioned above, “What’s wrong with having more than 500 friends on Facebook? And what’s the solution” is one of 4 Presentations Etpers team brought to Barcamp Saigon 2011. With an impressive title, our team indicated problems of information overload in progress of using social networking sites. If you have 500 or more friends on Facebook, how can you sort through them all to identify the subset with which you want to have more meaningful contact?

Etpers team has been building an efficient solution for a long time, and the result is the birth of Etpers – a tool to combat information overload and helps you keep people you truly care much closer.

Just take a look at Facebook before and after being filtered through Etpers system in 1 hour (The account has around 900 friends). Click to see larger version.

Facebook in 1 hour before and after being filtered through Etpers system

With social media, we communicate faster and more often than ever before through Facebook, Twitter… And, our social networking relationships increase rapidly but the sheer volume of information online also expands every single day, we are so overloaded with tons of information. Despite having lots of friends on social-networking sites, certainly you really want to update from a group of people you truly care. Tightening important relationships is not easy when you have to filter a lot of non-sense information and being stuck with barriers between different communication protocols (Facebook, Email, SMS, Voice/Video Chat,…). Etpers is a smart filtering update system across multi social networks & a unified communication tool. With Etpers, you have no reason to miss precious moments & important things from people you care. That is main content of the presentation Etpers guys presented at Barcampsaigon 2011.

Etpers guys worked very hard for the prepairation of the presentation at Barcamp Saigon. The night before, our guys were almost sleepless night. Because of some unexpected things , we haven’t presented the Demo absolutely. After the trip to Barcamp Saigon 2011, our team received many good feedback that’s a great encouragement for us. According to this trip, our team found out some existing problems, we are working very hard to fix it & try all heart to bring you a“Etpers” is as good as possible. In recent time, Etpers hasn’t launched yet, but if you are interested in our Etpers & want to access the service soon, please sign up at http://etpers.com. Thank you so much for your support!

Part 3: Will you die due to cancer? (a very useful & interesting topic from an Etpers team member: Thi Vu)

This is also the 1st time the interface image of Etpers was officially published .The Introduction and Presentation by Ninh Nguyen & Duong Le about Etpers made a good impression and has attracted much attention.

“I think the problem you are trying to tackle will be a key problem soon as people start getting selective about their social networks. They are probably not to keen on working on this as adding more friends is favorable for them”

It is a great encouragement for Etpers team to try harder to improve Etpers as good as possible. Thank you so much for your support!

Returning to our guys’trip, they came to Saigon one day before Barcamp, some pictures of Etpers guys’ walking tour around Saigon.

Some pictures from the barcamp presentation of Etpers guys

…..to be continued

Part 2 : What’s wrong with 500 friends on Facebook ? And the Etpers solution.

Part 3 : Will you die due to cancer? (a very useful & interesting topic from an Etpers team member: Thi Vu)

Alright, I’ll give this a shot based on my experience working at Google with the best product managers I’ve ever seen anywhere. I am not a PM so these are based on my observation of the best at Google.

Take ownership of the product and all issues related to it. This goes a long way, if you own the product, you are the first one looking for bugs, first communicating with users and first worrying about whether or not you got it right. You’re always first to volunteer to do the many varied tasks that go along with running a product/team like taking notes, sending emails to customers, filling things out, triaging bugs, or doing a quick mockup. Always start with: It’s not someone else’s responsibility, it’s your responsibility. When you do this, you’ll find #2 to be easier.

Be incredibly persuasive. (I don’t really know how to do this one, but I see it done every day.) You want to get things done, but you are not in charge so to speak. None of the team reports to you and they really don’t have to do anything you say. You need to be convincing rather than commanding to get things done at Google. If you are doing #1, this is easier because everyone knows you are going to be in the trenches with everyone else if the stuff hits the fan.

Be an engineer. I don’t mean that you actually need to be coding the product. I mean you should be curious about how the product is built as if you were an engineer. You should be interested in understanding how much something costs in engineering time, and why it costs so much. What algorithms are in use for that feature? Why is this page slow? Any engineer on the team will pay a lot of attention to big architecture decisions that affect the product and so should you. You should be able to explain the tradeoffs of major engineering decisions if you run into the founders and they want to know why something works the way it does. The best PMs at Google enjoy getting very technical whenever they can.

Be endlessly positive. Your team is likely composed of engineers and some of us tend to be very cynical. A very positive PM can make a world of difference in the mood of the team. You may feel silly being so positive all the time, but it’s infectious and your team will feed off of it. Remember that you and your Tech Leads (lead engineers) may know of a million things to get you all down, but the rest of your team is likely not exposed to all of that. You help them do their jobs better by not wallowing in your worries because as the PM, you are the team’s window/messenger to the larger company. If you are negative, then that’s how the team will think the rest of the company perceives their work.

Don’t self-promote. This should be obvious, but if you attempt to self-promote, it’s incredibly obvious and poisonous. Celebrate others on the team, you and the Tech Lead(s) are already the primary contacts for the project and you don’t need any promotion. If you are dragging around the hard work of others attempting to earn kudos for yourself, you’re doing it wrong and you won’t go far. Be inclusive.Whether it’s a blog post, or a launch video for a new feature the best PMs promote their team members. Take a look at the blogs for some of the best products at Google. You’ll find the blog posts are written by a very wide array of individuals and not always the product manager because they are actively promoting others. (Please don’t confuse my usage of “promote” with actual job promotion which is a different animal. BTW the latter is highly dependent on peer reviews.)

Fearless. A better writer could explain this better, but you must be blind to titles. The best PMs will speak to the founders the same way they speak to engineers or designers on their team. If you freeze up when questioned about your product decisions by execs, you won’t be successful. Give succinct answers and be fearless when defending your team’s ideas.

Anyone reading this knows what it’s like to get excited about a pending release. Whether it be a new Dan Brown novel to the mythical Apple Tablet, we all love the speculation. Hype is a great way to describe this type of obsession.

The companies behind these products know we are suckers for teasers, specs, promos, anything at all that can give our thirst just a momentary reprieve. At the same time, this last year especially, we’ve noticed tactics shifting substantially through the age of the Internet.

What used to be a controlled environment has now become a free-for-all frenzy of information being traded and “leaked” online. I can’t tell you how many Crunchgear blog posts I’ve read that dealt with “leaked” specs of various Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, or Sony products. I even remember knowing about the PS3 Slim almost five months in advance of its release. The companies allegedly go to an intense length to hide these rumors with cease and desist letters, threats of legal action, or even just plain denial. We all know though, that at the same time they LET a lot of it happen.

Think about it, it’s almost a way to allow them to control the market without actually violating FTC or SEC rules. I remember recently reading a few reports that Apple was being investigated by the SEC on several counts of insider trading (thanks to Macrumors) which noted that the stocks that were being traded almost seemed like the people had direct knowledge of the inner workings of the company- as if employed there themselves. This is laughable because in all honesty, with all the leaked specs from Chinese manufacturers and distributors and “insider” sources, anyone with a good sense of the calendar-shopping year could have done the same thing. Everyone knows if the next keynote address actually delivers then the stock will skyrocket.

What I think is so fascinating is that while this almost seems like a dirty trick to play on the minds of consumers, I can’t help applaud these companies. It’s Entrepreneurship 101; find an opportunity and exploit the heck out of it to the point that people will be clamoring for your new and innovative product/service.

The hype is 90% of the battle because if done successfully, the product will deliver as expected (and hopefully surpass expectations). If I have to choose my next mp3 player, computer, or touch screen device, I couldn’t care less about who makes it, it’s all about what they can offer and how excited I get for it. I used to be an advent user of Windows software until Vista came out, but after Windows 7 and the announcement of the Courier tablet/journal, I’ve actually considered purchasing one of these new products.

Point being- the leaked specs of the Courier blew my mind away. Seriously- check it out, it’s almost scary what this thing might do and how it will change the way classes and the workplace function. The fact of the matter is that in this new age, every year is a milestone in achievement from the one prior. No longer are we stuck on a plateau. It’s all up hill to the point that the now black and white E-reader market, for instance, will turn into a full on media device with a vibrant color interface and new and improved month long battery life by 2012. You never know, but the hype will keep us coming back.

There is an undeniable fact, everyone uses Facebook to communicate and Facebook is being increasingly open and encouraging people to connect more. Relationships on Facebook are no longer “real” like at first. Too many invitations from people you do not know, too many updates on the home page from whom you do not attend, with full entertainment applications disturbing information.

It’s easy to see Facebook would no longer be a really useful tool “communication 2.0” which gradually shifts to an entertainment platform and loses real values to users, if that trend still continues to improve

Louis Gray (a hot technology blogger) wrote an article of demonstrating on Facebook did not do a good job, which everyone look forward to it:being able to update the latest and most valuable information from people we care.

Louis Gray’s younger sister gave birth to a baby boy and shared that news on facebook . Many friends and even the mother of Louis interacted and shared that news, however Louis just received that one day later. Louis explained himself that he believed too much in the “intelligence” level of facebook system in identifying which are the most important information to Louis? But in fact it’s so different.

Although there are many objective reasons and features of facebook have to serve its strategy developments as well as doing business. But having to recognize that the real value, which Facebook users expect (as initially) is gradually loosing and facebook did not do well what users have ever expected. Before the appearance of a product coping with this problem (what I’m doing). Temporarily, users just have unique one way is try to optimize and run under the changes of Facebook which I mentioned in last article.

But, will the users ever run under facebook? Does everyone feel tired of overwhelming in tons of worthless information to find which they care the most then just realize that they are still missing precious moments?

Note: in occasion of talking about missing important things, just reminds me of this video, it’s so interesting.

What we need the most? Happiness in life, friendships, money, romantic relationships, love from fellow human beings, communities, fitting in somewhere… & may be it is internet. Do you see that all relates to a factor? Yep, that is human.

Said Andrew Cohen :“Human beings only learn and evolve through relationship. How do we cultivate consciousness and wisdom? Through engagement. You see, it’s almost impossible for any of us to be authentically objective about ourselves. The only way we can see ourselves objectively is through the reflection of others. We can go off and sit in a cave and meditate for years, but we only really find out what happened in that cave when we come out and get involved with other people. So we need each other if we want to evolve”. Perhaps that quote is a bit too theoretical but the core content has just only one : “the most important thing to human is human”. Because life is too short, we are all born, live then die. We need live a “real” life so we all need each other to love, to share joys, sorrows, pain, fear, stress…or even to hate. It fulfills our ourself, makes a meaningful life. That’s why we all care about and are connected to our families, friends, loved one, strangers and we are all connected to neighborhoods and towns and cities and states and countries. Whatever we do, affects many other people and vice versa.

It’s so nice to see everyone having fun to communicate with each others. Nowadays, with social media, we communicate faster and more oftenthan ever before. But the sheer volume of information online expandsevery single day, we are so overloaded with information. Too many invitations from people we do not know, too many updates on the home page with full entertainment applications disturbing information from people we do not attend. Relationships on social networks are no longer “real” like at first. Overwhelming in tons of worthless information to find which are we care the most then just realize that we are still missing precious moments. We need a really useful tool that is able to identify which are the most important information to us, helps us communicate effortlessly and effectively with people we care.

Our Etpers team always believe that “making “real” networking relationships & nearing our dears ” has the power to make the world a more organized, more efficient & better place. With that purpose, in each our activities, we are trying to bring that belief to everyone. That’s the reason why (may be call our mainly powerful force) we decided to built a really useful tool that is able to identify which are the most important information to us, helps us communicate effortlessly and effectivelythrough updating much “in touch” from people you care: anyone, anytime, anywhere, anyway, any device! No reason to miss anything. That“optimized tool” is Etpers.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“While the seed funding is nice, the real value is the advice, mentoring, and connections” – Brad Feld

Recently, accelerators have proliferated around the globe, bringing a lot of opportunities and support, both money and guidance, to entrepreneurs. Usually every accelerator program combines funding with expert advice and coaching in order to help startups get thefundamentals right and grow their business in ways they couldn’t on their own. However, each program has its own flavor. Let’s take a look at 8 global startup accelerators that help startups get their ideas off the ground:

1. Y Combinator: is a venture fund which focuses on seed investments to startup companies. Its program offers both, financing and business consulting along with other opportunities, to 2-4 person companies looking to take an idea to a product. “Y Combinator looks for companies with “good” ideas over companies with experience and a business model” is written on its CrunchBase profile. The main goal of this accelerator is:” to help startups to be in dramatically better shape 3 months later. For most startups, better shape translates into two things: to have a better product with more users, and to have more options for raising money”, reports Y Combinator on its official website. The first investment was made in summer 2005. Since that time they have funded over 300 startups, including Loopt, Reddit, Clustrix, Wufoo, Scribd, Xobni, Weebly, Songkick, Disqus, Dropbox, ZumoDrive, Justin.tv,Heroku,Posterous, Airbnb, Heyzap, Cloudkick, DailyBooth, WePay, and Bump. Follow this link to learn more about this accelerator’s program details.

2. HackFWD: Beta – Profitabilty – Success: that’s what they say the route of their pre-seed investment accelerator is. HackFWD is focusedon investing and supporting “Europe’s most passionate geeks”. The company is looking for highly scalable products with clear consumer need. In return it offers funding for year 1 up to €191,000 for 27% of the company, while 3% go to startup’s advisors. HackFwd is led by the European technology entrepreneur Lars Hinrichs, the founder of LinkedIn competitor XING.

3. TechStars: is a seed fund, or a mentorship-driven seed stage investment program, as stated on the official website. They offer a three month long program in Boston (MA), Boulder (CO), New York City (NY) and Seattle (WA) once each year. The selected companies can get up to $18,000 in seed funding ($6,000 per founder), “three months of intensive top-notch mentorship, and the chance to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the program”. In return, TechStars takes 6% equity in the company in common/founders stock. The company was founded by David Cohen,Brad Feld,David Brown, and Jared Polis in 2006. Follow this link for more info on TechStars funding program.

4. Startupbootcamp: is a global affiliate of the US based startup acceleration programme, TechStars. The programme currently runs in Copenhagen, Madrid and Dublin. They announced expansion to Berlin and London in 2012. As reported on their CrunchBase Profile, “the first edition of Startupbootcamp took place in Copenhagen from August-November 2010 with 32 entrepreneurs from 12 different countries. So what’s the deal? You get €4,000 per team member (up to three members), free office space, 75+ mentors and 100 investors at Investor Day. All this in return for 8% equity that goes to Startupbootcamp. Startupbootcamp was co-founded by Alex Farcet ofRainmaking and Luis Rivera of Okuri Ventures and Tetuan Valley.Eoghan Jennings, former CFO at Xing, joined shortly after as Partner and Managing Director for Dublin.

5. Seedcamp: it acts as a micro seed fund to invest in startup companies, mainly through its flagship event Seedcamp Week which takes place in September. It also runs Mini Seedcamps in several startup hubs around Europe. How it works? You have an idea, build the product (either in alfa or beta version, prototypes, screenshots, videos), apply, then the judging and selection step follow and if you are among the selected companies then Seedcamp usually invests €30,000 to €50,000 for 8-10% of the company in return. If you are a winner you also get their year-long support in growing your company, countless events, and of course a fast track to all the brilliant mentorsand investors. Saul Klein, Index Ventures Partner, is the founder of Seedcamp.

6. Dreamit Ventures: is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation and seed investments. How it works? You can apply with a prototype or even with idea only, the selection process follows and then if you are selected you start the program. Here is what you getfrom Dreamit Ventures: up to $25,000 of seed funding per company ($5,000 plus $5,000 for each founding team member, up to four, who will be onsite for the program), 1-on-1 Mentorship with leading entrepreneurs, introductions to VCs and angel investors and an opportunity to pitch to dozens of them at Demo Day, a weekly Speaker Series, regular check-ins with your Mentors and the DreamIt Managing Partners, and community which will support you along the way. In return Dreamit Ventures gets a 6% passive equity stake in your company. Mentors, advisors and other participants are at no charge to the team/company. The organization was founded by David Bookspan, Michael Levinson, and Steven D. Welch and is based in the United States.

7. Startmate: is a group of startup executives offering mentorship and seed financing to founders of Internet and Software businesses based in Australia. Their first program took place in the first quarter of 2011, while their next program is in the first quarter of 2012 in Sydney, with applications opening up in October/November of this year. Followthis link for more information on the Startmate 2011 program. What does the whole program look like? First, they are mostly interested in entrepreneurs who are primarily technically in nature. This means they are either software developers or user experience designers or some aspect of product development. “If things don’t go your way immediately, which likely they wont, then the company needs the ability to keep moving forward with very little money”, is written on their official website. The program (weekly meetings, lunches, or dinners at which mentors will help the founders begin the search for a business model and win their first customers) takes place in 3 months. They offer $25,000 investment for 7.5% of each startup’s equity, which values the companies at a post-money valuation of $333,000. Check this link to learn more about this program details.

8. Open Network Lab: is a seed acceleration program in Japan, similar to Y Combinator and TechStars, established by Netprice.com, Digital Garage, and Kakaku.com. The idea is to create a global startup ecosystem, allowing startups in Japan to receive mentorship and funding from overseas (USA and Singapore in particular). As reportedon their CrunchBase Profile, besides its mentorship and investors’ network Open Network Lab offers about $3000 per founder to companies that make its list up to 3 founders. In return, limited partners of Open Network Lab will have the priority to invest up to 5 percent in ownership.

These are some of the best global programs which have grabbed a lot of media attention and for that reason we chose them to write about. However, there are many other global accelerators that provide extraordinary support, in terms of capital, mentorship, and networking. No matter where your business is located you can always join a great regional or global accelerator program which will get your idea off the ground. If you have a promising idea, or prototype make your top accelerator list, apply and grab the opportunity.

“Help great people with great ideas build great companies” – Dreamit Ventures goal

The web is a social place now … when we find something interesting online, we share it with our friends and hope it sparks some sort of conversation. Sharing content online either as a content publisher, content consumer, or the Tumblr consum-isher hybrid has become what the web is all about. It’s about information yes, but it’s more about connecting with each other and learning from one another.

We depend on each others’ recommendations and trust each other when it comes to reviews (Yelp), videos, articles, products, services, and humor.

This is what Google currently has it’s sights set on (no pun intended) … becoming more involved and relevant in regard to the social experience of the web. Just as Facebook and Twitter positioned themselves as platforms where people could share and recommend content with their friends, Google is hoping to create a way for people to share and recommend content.

They’re introducing Google +1 … a way for people to recommend content.

The Big Problem

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Google doesn’t have the social network. They have an awesome audience constantly using their service to find content, but they don’t have what makes social sharing work … a platform where people socialize.

The reason why publishers have implemented the Facebook Like button and the Tweet or Retweet button from Twitter is because it enables people to share content with their friends … something which has become extremely important to our culture. The more interesting content you share with people, the more likely you are to spark conversation and connect.

Instant Interaction = Instant Gratification

Imagine yourself at a party … you just finished telling an amazing story about how you got lost in the jungles of Tanzajarakow, because imprisoned by the natives for trespassing, and then managed to ride a wild alpaca to safety.

With a story like this, you can expect to have some sort of reaction from those listening as soon as you reveal the ending. That’s what Facebook and Twitter provide people in terms of social sharing. You share a piece of content, and your friends respond with some sort of reaction.

It’s fun. It’s social.

Google +1 falls short of this because of the lack of social network. Instead, imagine telling that same story to your personal recorder, then playing it on repeat in a busy hallway … eventually you might get some sort of reaction from someone, but there’s no telling when.

Recommend Interesting Content with Friends Google

The fundamental reason that will hold Google +1 back from reaching the scale of Twitter and Facebook buttons is due to the lack of a solid social network foundation, which is where the sharing should take place. By enabling users interaction on their own profile or on their friends profiles, users have a reason to share and recommend content — it keeps them present in the party and relevant and fun.

Recommending something using the Google +1 button will result in your “vote” appearing in the Google index. If a friend happens to search for something relevant to the piece of content you recommended, Google will let them know that you recommended it by revealing your “vote” to them. There’s a big IF in front of that sentence.

What do you think about Google +1 and how it will fit with Facebook and Twitter buttons across the web once rolled out? Will you implement the +1 button and will you make use of it when searching the web?

There is no shortcut to success.

Social media is an ongoing effort that requires a lot of meticulous planning and a sustained effort towards the predetermined objectives.
The rules of such campaign are not defined and hence some of the possible and effective strategies that can be made for social media campaign are as follows.
• First, find a suitable and befitting channel that can complement the image of yourbrand. The channel should be able to understand the value of the product or the services that is being promoted using the medium.
• Second, plan and choose the team that can build the brand image. It is imperative that the professionals working on this project have the required skill-sets and believe in the product’s brand power. Right from the PR agents or the staff members the team has to be chosen carefully.
• Third, make content the king. As an important part of the social media campaign, the content should target on promotion of the benefits of the products and not be offensive or outrageous.
• Fourth, carefully target the online users. Search better about your targeted online users and then promote the brand to the users who use it more frequently. The promotion campaign can be altered as per the audience and necessary actions can be subsequently taken.
• Be aware of the brand scrutiny. Once the brand has being introduced to the market, the concerned team should be well aware of the pros and cons of the steps they have taken for its promotion. Hence, keep eyes on the conversations, posts, chats or even the forums taking place with respect to the product.
• Always be original as much a possible. Use of social media channels as a method to promote the product has to be done carefully and in an original way. Utilize the possible benefits and reward system process for the marketing of the product in a better way.
• Constantly measure the performance of efforts being put in to make sure these are in sync with the goals. It is only when the goals are achieved and ROI expanded it can be estimated that the campaign was a success
Some of the most famous social media campaigns of all times are as mentioned below:
• Threadless building brand love was an example of the widespread coverage of the brand on the social media channels.
• Dunkin Donut’s new product campaign on Facebook.
• Promotion of new Fiesta by Ford. The campaign saw use of social media to correctly target the audience in a very impressive manner.
• Promotion of Xperia X1 by Sony Ericsson.
• The unique formulation of the sea World’s Whale social media campaign is the best example of intelligent social media marketing. It demonstrated that a marketingcampaign can be made successful even out of the realms of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
These and many more successful marketing campaigns are the example of how social media strategies can be made use of to the best of their ability.
Social media campaigns must be designed to derive continuous engagement from the users and should also have beneficial results for the sales department. Smart allocation of resources can ensure better Return on Investment in case your social media campaign is successful. Setting up short term goals and constant revisions should be the right approach to the whole strategy.

How do you begin to improve your sales performance? It all starts with a dialogue. Begin by contacting us or calling us at 201-3015-3305. A member of the MarcoGiunta team would like to learn more about how we can help your team achieve your business results.

Figure out

An entrepreneur is…

Etpers Ling

I'm a member of Etpers team, we are building http://etpers.com - a social media tool to combat information overload & helps you keep people you truly care much closer. Access our web & let me know how you think about our product. I'd love to hear from you, thanks!